The use of outdoor cooking devices and more particularly barbecue grills has become increasingly more popular in recent years. Generally, the heat source for barbecue grills is either charcoal or gas.
In efforts to optimize the convenience for gas barbecue grills, many of these types of units incorporate an ignitor mechanism to eliminate the need for matches which can become dangerous since a gas build-up may occur within the grill before the gas is ignited.
Recently, the Assignee of the present invention has engineered a new gas charcoal grill that eliminates the need for the conventional lava rock that is customarily supported above the gas burners to absorb the heat from the combustion of the gases. This gas grill is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,964, incorporated herein by reference, and includes a novel gas burner arrangement consisting of two or three gas burner tubes all of which can be ignited from a single ignitor unit. In this patent, the ignitor unit is supported in an opening in a housing wall and includes an exposed electrode enclosed in a ceramic non-conductor and is positioned directly adjacent one of the burner tubes which forms the ground so that the gas emanating from the burner tubes is ignited by the spark produced between the electrode and the burner.
The electrode is supported on a bracket and extends through an opening in the housing wall, being secured by a fastener which has a ground lead connected thereto. This unit also incorporates a remotely controlled ignitor button which is conveniently located on the control console which also houses the control knobs that control the flow of gas to the respective burner tubes. The ignitor button has two leads respectively connected to the ground tab and the electrode. The proper gap between the electrode and the burner tube is adjusted by bending the electrode.
There are several disadvantages to ignitor units of the type disclosed in the above patent. A significant disadvantage is encountered during cleaning of the firebox, and grill. Oftentimes during cleaning, the exposed electrode of the ignitor unit is bent out of alignment during the removal and replacement of the grill components and the electrode is no longer positioned to produce the necessary spark in close proximity to the gas burner. Moreover, the burner assemblies are usually loosely mounted in the grill housing and thus it is difficult to maintain the same position between the burner tube (ground) and the electrode. Thus, the electrode must be bent to produce the desired gap each time the burner tube is moved. Consequently, this inhibits the ignition of the gas.
Another disadvantage is the fouling of the unit from grease drippings and other deposits incident to barbecuing. Such deposits prevent the piezoelectric member from sparking when activated.
Thus, there remains a need for a simple safeguard that protects the ignitor unit at all times.